So, what IS La Mela Rosa's Virgins' Pit....??

Uncovering the Virgins' Pit.

Well, we found it quite by chance when pulling ivy, nettles, tree branches, bits of old plough and more out of what was left of an old outbuilding. We first saw a bit of
an arch and got very excited. The arch forms the bottom of the VP and arches over a cistern. Seems it was where they made the vino cotto. The grapes were pushed through the window and
fell down the specially-created inside slope onto a metal mesh on the floor. Here the grapes were squished (by virgins, of course!) and the juice ran through the hole at
the front and into the cistern below. It was then pulled out in bucket loads and boiled up in a large, copper pot which sadly no longer exists. The names does though - it's been the
"Virgin's Pit" since the day we discovered it!